Ownership reform will allow Cofco Land to become a global firm, chairman says
Cofco Land chief Zhou Zheng says the firm aims to establish a diversified and mixed-ownership shareholding structure and improve its governance to become a truly global company
Zhou Zheng was appointed chairman of Hong Kong-listed Cofco Land last year. He is also chairman of Shenzhen-listed Cofco Property.
Both are property arms of Cofco Group, China’s largest supplier of agricultural products and food, which Zhou joined in the early 1990s and now serves as a vice-president.
Cofco Group was selected two weeks ago as one of the first six central-government-controlled firms to take part in trial reforms aimed at introducing more competition in the state sector and reducing government intervention.
Q: Cofco Group is among a few state-owned enterprises (SOEs) selected by the government to develop property as a core business. What do you think of the reform allowing greater private ownership of SOEs? How will these reforms benefit Cofco Land?
A: The government’s pledge to let the market play a decisive role in allocating resources will speed up healthy development of the property industry.
Cofco Group is one of the original 16, later expanded to 21, state firms controlled by the central government designated by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) to develop property as its core business.